Conventional wagering games of chance in which a player selects indicia from pools or groups of indicia, and then the house randomly generates indicia from the same pools or groups, usually involve the selection of numbers or patterns of numbers. They include games such as keno and variations thereof.
The basic principles of keno are set out in Scarne's New Complete Guide to Gambling, 1974, pp. 490-499, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, N.Y. In keno, a player selects from one to fifteen numbers which he believes will be randomly generated by the house from a pool of one to eighty numbers. When the game is live, the player selects his numbers from a paper keno ticket, having a matrix of ten columns and eight rows of numbers consecutively presented, by marking the ticket with a crayon or other marker. The player then turns the paper keno ticket into the house, at the same time placing a wager. Next, the house proceeds to randomly select twenty numbers from the pool of one through eighty numbers. When the game is live, the house generally proceeds by manually selecting the balls from an air blower device that circulates the balls bearing the numbers 1 through 80, or by an electronic random number generator which displays them on a common board. The house then proceeds to determine the number of matches and to award the player an appropriate payout. The more numbers that match, the higher the payout.
Typically, live keno involves multiple players in any given game, and there may be no winners, or there may be multiple winners. Also typically, gaming establishments offering keno post payout charts showing the amount of money a player may win based upon the number of numbers selected by the player, the amount wagered by the player and the number of matches achieved by the player when twenty keno balls are drawn.
Unlike live keno, video or electronic keno involves a single player against a gaming machine. In this case, the player selects his numbers by touching numbers displayed on a screen using conventional touch screen technology. The player submits his wager by putting coins or tokens into the video machine, with the machine providing payout tables to assist the player in determining his desired wager. Random selection by the house is accomplished electronically, and is initiated by the player pushing a “start” button. Matches are also determined electronically, and payouts are made by accruing credits on the credit meter of the machine or dispensing coins or tokens into a payout tray.
Variations of live keno include the use of “way” tickets. Way tickets permit a player to select groups of selected numbers or “spots” to be played simultaneously on the same ticket for a given game of keno. Variations of electronic or video keno include “four card keno” in which the player is presented with four keno tickets each representing a separate game from he may select the same or different numbers, and may wager the same or different amounts per game. One group of twenty balls is drawn applicable to all four games and matches and payouts determined.
As has been recognized, conventional keno games, live and electronic or video, tend to be slow paced as they require little player participation, offer odds which are generally unfavorable to the player and consequently lack player appeal yielding lower revenues to the gaming facility. In attempt to overcome these deficiencies, Moody, U.S. Pat. No. 6,315,291, describes a variation of keno allowing the player to play different groups of numbers on the same keno ticket over the course of multiple draws. The player divides his ticket into sections, with different payouts being provided for having the various sections and the selected numbers over the course of multiple draws. Weingardt, U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,875, describes a variation of keno in which after the player has marked his keno ticket but prior to the start of the drawing of the balls, a electronic generator designates a predetermined number of balls within the pool of 1-80 balls to be “red,” with the remainder designated as “white.” This allows for additional payouts to the player depending upon whether the player has an all “red” keno winning combination or an all “white” winning combination or a “mixed color” winning combination. Lovell, U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,281 attempts to overcome the deficiencies of conventional keno by providing for sub-games which require a player to guess a set of numbers or the sequence of the guessed numbers in the series of randomly generated numbers. McNabola, U.S. Pat. No. 6,368,213, describes a variation of keno in which the player may designate subsets of the numbers selected. Margolin, U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,911 describes a variation of keno in which the player selects a pattern of squares on the playing board as opposed to numbers. A template is randomly generated in addition to numbers, with the player receiving additional payouts where the selected numbers fall within the randomly generated template.
None of these prior methods, including those intended to overcome the slow pace and generally unfavorable odds experienced by players, and lower yield of revenues to house, have considered dividing a first indicia on the a playing surface into a plurality of groups and associating each group with a plurality of second indicia allowing for additional selections, matches and payouts over the course of a single draw or round.